The movie that scared Hollywood so bad they invented a whole genre to contain it.
In 1971, director Melvin Van Peebles turned the figure of the black hero in US cinema upside down with Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song: the story of the making of a seminal movie that initiated the Blaxploitation movement, a short-lived but highly influential sub-genre in the years that followed.
Direction
Bernstein and Delumeau let Melvin's own chaotic genius narrate itself.
Production
Rare footage of the actual Sweetback production, shot guerrilla-style.
Director
Catherine Bernstein
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Van Peebles really did learn to edit overnight: when no editor would work for his budget, he bought manuals and did it himself, sleeping in the editing bay.
The Black Panther Party officially endorsed Sweetback as required viewing—the only film they ever did that for—yet Van Peebles later distanced himself from the Blaxploitation wave his success triggered.
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